1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a printer that is equipped with a buzzer and can sound the buzzer at a predetermined time linked to a printing-related operation that is triggered by sending commands and data from a host device, and further relates to a control method for a printer that is equipped with a buzzer.
2. Description of Related Art
Printers that equipped with a buzzer include printers that sound the buzzer when a command is sent from a host device, and printers that are preset to sound the buzzer according to the condition of the printer.
The latter type of printer with a buzzer is taught in Japanese Unexamined Patent Appl. Pub. JP-A-2001-166904. This printer is configured to sound the buzzer under predetermined conditions, such as if a cover is opened during operation, if printing stops because there is no paper, or if a recoverable error or a non-recoverable error occurs. In addition to printer commands and line feed commands received from the host device, the printer also receives an audible report configuration command that controls whether to sound the buzzer as well as the type of buzzer sound and how many times the buzzer sounds. If a buzzer off command is received from the host, the printer can execute an interrupt process based on the buzzer off command to stop the buzzer.
While JP-A-2001-166904 teaches a printer that can sound the buzzer when triggered by detecting an error state, it is silent about sounding the buzzer triggered by executing specific control commands while printing a print job so that the buzzer sounds at each page end or paper cutting operation, for example. In addition, because the conditions for sounding the buzzer are preset in the printer itself, there is no need to send a buzzer command from the host in order to always sound the buzzer under the same conditions, but the audible report configuration command must be sent from the host every time the trigger condition changes in order to change the printer-side setting. Therefore, if the setting for sounding the buzzer is complicated, such as sounding the buzzer at every n-th page end operation, the audible report configuration command must be resent each time the buzzer is sounded, and processing becomes complex.
It may also be desirable to notify the user of conditions other than when a printer problem occurs, such as when a specific print job is completed. More specifically, the buzzer is sounded to inform the user when a specific command related to printing a job is executed, such as when printing is completed, at a page end, or when the paper is cut. It is desirable in such situations to be able to easily set or change whether or not the buzzer is sounded, and one way of doing this is to add a buzzer command at the timing for sounding the buzzer to a print command that is sent from the host. As an example of this print command sent from the host to the printer, the buzzer command may be added to the stop printing command denoting the end of printing after the print data, or the buzzer command may be added to the end of page command that denotes the end of page position in the print data.
However, methods of inserting a buzzer command in the data stream containing print commands from the host device at the locations (in the sequence) where the buzzer should be sounded have the following problems.
First, because the printer interprets the buzzer commands contained in the print command to sound the buzzer each time (in the order) the buzzer is to be sounded, there is a delay to the timing at which the buzzer should actually sound.
Furthermore, because a buzzer command is required each time the buzzer sounds, the structure of the print command and printer-side processing become complicated.
In addition, if the buzzer command is received after printing ends, for example, the printer must detect the stop printing command, execute the stop printing process operation, and then execute the buzzer command to sound the buzzer. The stop printing process operation may be a process that returns the head carriage to the home position, advance the paper, cut the paper, or runs the head cleaning process when specific conditions are met. Because sounding the buzzer waits until the head cleaning process ends once the head cleaning process starts, the timing at which the buzzer sounds to notify the user that printing ended is significantly delayed from the actual end of printing.